HEIRS-PORTIONERS, in Scotch law, mean either two or more females, being, sisters, or sisters and the children, male and female, of deceased sisters, who are entitled to suc ceed to heritable estate. Thus, if A dies leaving three daughters, all three succeed equally if alive; or if some had already died leaving children, then the children repre sent the parent, and succeed to the parent's share along with the surviving sisters, all being called heirs-portioners. In such cases, the eldest heir-portioner is entitled to the mansion-house over and above her equal share of the rest. She alone also takes a peerage or dignity, if there is any in the family. In England coparceners, though resembling heirs-portioners, have not identical rights. See Paterson's Comp. of E. and S. Law, s. 777.
HEL, the northern goddess of the dead, who dwelt beneath one of the three roots of the sacred ash Yggdrasil, was the daughter of the evil-hearted Loki (q.v.), by the giantess Angurboda. IIel, together with her brothers, the wolf Feurir, and the serpent Jormundgand, was bred up in the giant's home Of J8tunbeim, where she remained, till at the request of the iEsir, or gods, the All-father sent for her and her. brothers; when, knowing that by their origin these children must prove a great source of calamity, he resolved upon their destruction, and after casting the serpent into the deep ocean, which surrounds all lands, and where it has grown so large that it encircles the whole world, and bites its own tail, lie hurled Hel into Nifiheim (q.v.), over which he gave her authority, and in which she was to assign places to all who die of sickness and age. Her vast abode is surrounded by a high mclosure with massive gates. Her dwelling is dindnir, dark clouds; her dish, hungr, hunger; her knife, guilt, starvation; her ser vants, gangldti, slow-moving; her bed, kor, sickness; and her curtains, blikiandabid, splendid misery. She is easily recognized by her fierce aspect, and her half-black, half
flesh-colored skin. HA was inexorable, and would release no one who had once entered her domain. See BALDER.
After the introduction and diffusion of Christianity,. the ideas personified in Hel grad ually merged, all the races of northern and German descent, in the local con ception of a hell, or (lark abode of the dead. See Thorpe's Northern Mythology, Grimm's hlythologie.
HEL, in Norse mythology, a goddess or giantess who dwells in Nifiheim under the roots of Yggdrasil, and rules over nine worlds. Her residence is called Helheim, and the Hel-way thither is long. Its course is northward and downward; gloomy rivers sur round her world, one of which flows through valleys filled with swords. A dog stands outside of a cave, and with loud howling greeted Odin when he rode down to Hel to wake the prophetess in her grave-mound e. of the Hel-gate to inquire the fate of Balder. Hel binds the dying with chains that cannot be broken. She receives all who die of sickness or old age. Her company is large, but her shadowy realm has room for all. The worst go into Nifiheim ; or the ninth and lowest world, into the place named Anguish, the threshold of which is Precipice, their table is Famine, their waiters Slow ness and Delay, and their bed is Care. Hel rides a horse with only three feet. Faith in this goddess is not yet extinct. Hel-shoes (hell-shoon) are still put on the feet of the dead, and her dog is heard barking to give warning that death is at hand. In Norway when any one recovers from dangerous illness he is said to have given Het a bushel of oats, in allusion to the belief that she wanders around in the form of a horse. That the English noun "hell" is derived from the name of this goddess seems beyond doubt.